Sidky H. A Critique of Postmodern Anthropology: In Defense of Disciplinary Origins and Traditions

Lewiston, NY; Queenston, Ontario: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003. — 487 p. — ISBN-10: 0773467815, ISBN-13: 978-0773467811.This work provides a critique of the literary/interpretive approaches in cultural anthropology and their challenge to science, scientific anthropology, and disciplinary origins and traditions. It aims for a careful application of scientific analysis in the investigation of cultural processes.ForewordThe Challenge to Disciplinary History and Traditions
Disciplinary Traditions and Interpretivist Objections
Epistemology
The Sins of the Past? The Interpretivists’ Misleading Construal of the Historical Development of Anthropology
The Roots of Interpretivism: Franz Boas and the Unmaking of Scientific Anthropology
The Mead-Freeman Controversy: Interpretivist Misrepresentations of Science tn Anthropology
Fieldwork and Writing Ethnographies: Bronislaw Malinowski and the Postmodernists
Symbolic Anthropology and the Interpretation of Culture: The Entrenchment of Anti-Science Anthropology
Postmodernism, Anti-Science and Anti-Reason
Postmodernism in AnthropologyAnthropology, Science, Anti-Science, and the Pursuit of Knowledge: Concluding Thoughts